Always a Lady
by Taliya
Summary: The first time Sera Masumi met Hakuba Saguru was at a murder case. He was such an arrogant snob, and even more infuriatingly, he treated her like some weak woman—so how had she ended up falling so hard for him? Written for Poirot Café's Prompt Exchange #5.


Detective Conan and Magic Kaito characters, settings, and ideas do not belong to me but to Aoyama Gōshō.

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Warnings: Minor violence, [badly-written] slow burn/denial-type romance

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Always a Lady

By Taliya

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Prompt: HakuSera, cherry snow cones, and red-tainted lips

Word Count: 4313

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The first time seventeen-year-old Sera Masumi met seventeen-year-old Hakuba Saguru was at a murder case. He was quite possibly the stuffiest, most arrogant snob she had thus far encountered. He delivered his deductions with an air of condescension that grated and rubbed her the wrong way. The fact that he wore a ridiculous set of keeper's tweed Inverness cape and deerstalker hat made her believe that he was not _quite_ all that present in the head. And worse: he treated her like some helpless, flailing _girl_. The very idea pissed her off.

She was Sera Masumi, seventeen years of age, accomplished practitioner of Jeet Kune Do, and amateur homicide detective. And Sera Masumi did _not_ get treated like some weak _damsel in distress_!

* * *

Terada Izumi had been named the murderer when she had arrived on the scene. Without the ability to look around for clues herself, she had been forced to stand off to the side and listen to the blond outsider's deductions. He spoke Japanese flawlessly, therefore marking him as a native speaker—so a Japanese half-breed?

"The culprit is you!" Terada Izumi fell to his knees as sobs wracked his body. The half-foreign detective stepped towards the repentant murderer. "I just have one question: Why did you do this?"

"Keiko-san… she—she liked Hiruma more than me!" Terada cried. As the man dissolved into tears and incoherent sputtering about his motive, the blond patted the man's back awkwardly before straightening with a self-assured smirk. Masumi had never wanted to wipe a grin off someone's face more than at that moment. So instead, she settled for glaring at the half-foreigner.

He caught her rather intense stare with an inquisitive one of his own and made his way over. "May I help you?" he asked while smiling gently.

"Who are you?" she blurted out, blushing immediately afterwards. That had been _incredibly_ rude of her.

The blond huffed in amusement and leaned down to grasp her hand. "Hakuba Saguru, at your service," he introduced himself, pressing a chaste kiss to her knuckles. He rubbed a thumb over them pensively and remarked, "Do you happen to practice a martial art?"

Masumi, whose cheeks had flushed from a combination of embarrassment and outrage, yanked her hand out of Hakuba's grasp. She had never had a male touch her—romantically or otherwise—unless they were family after she had turned eight. Any other boy had been thoroughly beaten up for entering her personal space, and—well, she figured that she had scared off any potential suitors once she had entered her teens. That and she had long set her eyes on one Kudou Shinichi. None had ever dared to initiate physical contact—until this Hakuba Saguru. " _What_ do you think you're doing?" she growled.

Hakuba smirked and answered, "I suppose I should have greeted a lady such as yourself in a more traditional Eastern manner, as opposed to Western." He tilted his head to the side as he asked, "May I have your name?"

"Why?" Masumi bit out, refusing to give into the urge to cross arms over her chest. Inwardly she was impressed that he had picked up on the fact that she was, in fact, female. With how she dressed, it was not an easy feat to do.

"It's only common courtesy, is it not?" he asked, and the simple reminder of manners sent her blood boiling.

She bowed jerkily and replied tersely, "Sera Masumi."

Hakuba hummed thoughtfully. "Sera Masumi," he repeated, and she hated the way the syllables of her name rolled harmoniously off his tongue. He grinned politely at her and bowed shallowly. "I wish you a pleasant day, Sera-san," he said before sauntering out of the crime scene hotel room.

Masumi glared at the blond's retreating back, wondering why her cheeks still felt hot. The places where his fingers had held hers—and in particular where his lips had pressed upon her skin—carried an imprint of fiery warmth that confused her. She remained in the hotel room until Detective Takagi gently shooed her out, and even then she wandered down to the lobby in a mild daze. Her one hand unconsciously caressed the one the blond had held, and multiple times she would realize only to fling her hands apart. Yet somehow, they seemed to find each other, one hand's fingers outlining the points of contact. It was as though his touch had been fire-branded onto her skin, the residual sensation unfamiliar.

She flexed her fingers, curling and uncurling her affected hand into a fist as she studied the appendage from every angle. _What is so special about touch?_ she wondered, olive-green eyes tracing the slightly protruding veins that snaked their way down her forearm and into the back of her palm. She studied the calluses on her knuckles and side of her hand from pinky to wrist, a silent testament to the hours upon hours of practice she had done in an attempt to gain mastery over her chosen art form.

She smiled sadly as she stared at her hand. It had been so long since anyone had treated her as… well, she was not quite sure what the correct term was. Lady-like, like someone who was special—precious, even. She shook her head distractedly. Hakuba would not have acted that way towards another male— _that_ , she was sure of. She was not quite sure what to think of his deferential behavior. As she wandered out of the hotel, her mind remained firmly on one person: Hakuba Saguru. Who was he; why did he act the way he did; and most importantly, how did the way _he_ acted affect _her_?

* * *

Weeks of pondering had yet to produce a solution that Masumi was comfortable with. So far, anytime she thought of the blond, all she noticed was that her heart would beat just the slightest bit faster and that there would be an unnatural warmth in her breast, and yet the very idea of his behavior by turns both charmed and infuriated her like no other. It was… not the result she had been expecting. She had yet to determine if her reaction was normal—much less outright strange—and in the end she caved and decided to request advice from her fellow female friends Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko.

"So?" Sonoko prompted eagerly as she slurped a fruit smoothie in a small café. The blonde had always been a gossipmonger. "What did you want to ask us about?" To the Suzuki heiress' side, Ran sipped a cup of iced green tea, waiting patiently for the female detective to begin her tale.

"I—ah…" She stuttered, suddenly feeling acutely embarrassed. Now that she was here before the other two women, Masumi felt her tongue tie itself in knots. It had always been difficult for her to express her feelings, as she had made it a habit to hide them behind jokes and brushed-off smiles. "I wanted to ask you about—" and _gods_ , _why_ was it so hard to spit it out? "—about… um…"

The two sitting opposite her blinked, unused to seeing the normally easy-going detective so obviously flustered. Sonoko suddenly leered, and Masumi felt her stomach drop at the blonde's expression. "Oh? This isn't about a _boy_ , is it?" she needled, and the short-haired brunette felt her cheeks heat up. "Oh, it _is_!" Sonoko squealed while Ran moaned, " _Geez_ , Sonoko…"

Masumi had to jerk backwards in her seat as Sonoko abruptly stood and braced herself over the table, eyes alight as she pressed, "So who is he? Anyone we know?"

Ran pulled the blonde back into her seat. "Sonoko, can't you tell you're embarrassing her more?" the karate champion asked in fond exasperation.

"But it has to do with a _boy_ , Ran!" she whispered enthusiastically. "Can you imagine, going on triple dates? You and Shinichi-kun, me and Makoto-kun, and Sera-chan and…" Sonoko stalled, her blissful daydreaming broken by, "What's his name, anyway?"

Masumi half-grimaced, half-smiled as she answered, "Ah, Hakuba Saguru…"

"Hakuba Saguru…" Sonoko murmured thoughtfully. "Where have I heard that name before…?"

"Well, there's Hakuba-keishi-soukan," Ran said quietly. "Doesn't he have a son…?"

 _"Ah ha!"_ the heiress shouted suddenly, causing both Ran and Masumi to jump. "He's the detective from London! He's the one that goes after…" The volume of her voice dropped as her initial expression of excitement melted into a scowl. " _He's_ the one that came all the way from England to catch my KID-sama." She huffed. "As if _anyone_ could ever catch KID-sama!"

"Well…" Masumi chuckled nervously, scooting as far back into her seat as possible, "KID _is_ rather infuriating…"

"Because he impersonated you, right?" Ran asked with a frown. "I feel the same way, since he's pretended to be Shinichi several times in order to worm his way out of capture."

"But that's all past news," Sonoko interrupted, brushing Ran's comment off in her eagerness for gossip. "Seriously, what did he _do_?"

Masumi curled in on herself. It was so unlike her to shy away from anything, but right now she felt so out of her element. "Well, he—he kissed my hand."

"Wah, that's so _romantic_!" the blonde heiress gushed, while Ran cooed a soft, "Aw…"

The detective pursed her lips as she glanced away. "I didn't like it," she muttered.

Sonoko blinked. "But _why_?" she cried, "You have a guy who's really handsome—though not as handsome as my Makoto-kun, of course—who's treating you like an absolute queen! _Why didn't you like it?!_ "

Masumi petulantly raised her eyes to meet Sonoko's and Ran's baffled gazes. "Because it makes me feel useless and _weak_ ," she muttered.

The blonde wordlessly stared in disbelief as Ran smiled with a soft laugh. "You aren't weak, Sera-chan, and anyone who says otherwise is an idiot. From the few times that I've met Saguru-kun, he comes across to me as a very proper _Westerner_. _You_ , having lived in America for a few years, should be more familiar with their customs than me."

The short-haired brunette hunched in her chair. "I am familiar with their customs," she relented, "but that doesn't mean I like being treated that way!"

"And I'm sure he didn't mean it like that either," Ran insisted. "We had to read _Pride and Prejudice_ by Jane Austen in English class, and Saguru-kun's behavior reminds me very distinctly of Mr. Darcy." When Masumi said nothing, the karate practitioner pressed on, seeing as her words had struck a chord in the detective. "He was only showing proper deference to a lady. Just… give him another chance, okay?"

The Jeet Kune Do practitioner sighed. "Fine…"

Sonoko merely giggled in anticipation before taking another sip of her smoothie.

* * *

Masumi encountered Hakuba Saguru several more times—each time at a case—and the more she observed of him, the more she was inclined to agree with Ran's opinion of the male detective. He was deferential to all of the females regardless of age, treating them with respect and impartiality despite the difference in genders. It was a quite different attitude to what she had observed of the Japanese, which despite the societal advances made in recent decades, women were still to an extent, looked down upon as the significantly lesser sex.

That Hakuba failed to adhere to this societal norm was… refreshing. That it was also directed at her as well was… just plain _odd_. Little by little, however, he began to win her over with his courteousness, his Western Old World manners blatantly reminding her that she was, in fact, a female, and that on some level she did not want to admit to, she enjoyed the attention that she received from him.

There was one particular case, however, that stood out in her mind. It was the most recent one that she had participated in, and this one had ultimately landed the murderer in jail and the blond detective in the hospital. The culprit, Takahashi Nobuo, had decided to make a break for it right as Detective Takagi pulled out his handcuffs. The man had charged at Masumi, picking up the weapon in question, a still bloody knife, as he did so. The female detective had slid into a ready stance, poised to take him out, but before he approached close enough for her to lash out, Hakuba was there, wrestling for possession of the blade.

There was a brief struggle as the knife disappeared between the two of them, then the blond stiffened and grunted loudly as Takahashi grinned maniacally and jerked, to the horrified gasps of the assembled Homicide Unit officers. It was only then that Masumi then realized that Hakuba had been stabbed with the knife and that the man had taken the opportunity to thrust the blade further in. With a snarl, she ran and attacked, knocking the man to the floor with a flying kick. She followed through with another kick that rendered the man unconscious.

Spinning on her heel, she rushed to Hakuba's side as he sunk to the ground, the knife buried beneath his ribcage. Takagi was already by his side, on the phone demanding for an ambulance as he used whatever he could to stem the bleeding from his stomach. The man had taken his jacket off and had balled it under Hakuba's head for elevation. None of them made a move to remove the blade, as it was the only thing keeping him from bleeding out and going into hypovolemic shock.

"You—you _idiot!_ " she quietly shrieked, tears blurring her vision as she glared at Hakuba's rapidly paling visage. She wanted to punch him for making her worry the way she did now, but as she had no desire to exacerbate his wound, she settled for glaring furiously at him. "Why did you do that? You _know_ I am more than capable of protecting myself!"

Hakuba smiled wanly, doing his best to keep from moving so as not to jar the blade still embedded within him. "I know you can," he breathed softly, "but it's a gentleman's duty to protect a lady—any lady."

Masumi blushed and turned her head away under the excuse of wiping her eyes. "I'm no lady," she mumbled crossly.

The blond chuckled—or at least, he tried to before the pain from his injury brought it to an abrupt end as he winced. "Every female is a lady, no matter her age or race. Regardless of the fact that you choose to dress in a more gender-neutral fashion, you are still a lady to me." There was warmth in his eyes, and his comment sent butterflies fluttering in her stomach.

Cheeks reddening even more, the female detective refused to look at him, instead watching as Takagi's partner, Satou Miwako, led two emergency medical technicians their direction with a gurney in tow. Together with Takagi, Satou, and her help, the two technicians were able to maneuver Hakuba onto the stretcher with a minimal amount of jostling. As they wheeled him out to the ambulance, his eyes remained glued to hers as she watched him being taken away, and deep in her chest, she was amazed and flattered that someone other than her brothers would—and Hakuba _had_ —willingly taken a knife for her.

She resolved to visit him in the hospital once he was on the way to recovery, as an injury that deep would likely require surgery. She worried about the fact that the male detective had been stabbed with a used knife, feared that he could potentially contract blood-borne diseases such as HIV or HBV, along with the more common infection and potential sepsis via introduced contaminants. _Please be all right,_ she prayed with all her heart. _Please make it through clean and healthy!_

* * *

Saguru remained in the hospital for several weeks after the case despite a successful operation battling sepsis, and several times had gone into septic shock. The doctors had put him on a brutally aggressive antibiotic regime that left him severely weakened. Masumi had visited him every day despite his protests that she was under no obligation to do so.

"Hello again, Masumi-kun. You know you don't have to visit, right?" Hakuba sighed in greeting, the beeping of the cardiac monitor now familiar a background noise to the brunette. The repetitive hiss of the compression sleeves wrapped around his calves was missing, indicating that the nurses had deemed them no longer necessary.

"I know, Saguru-kun," Masumi replied as she closed the door to his room behind her and settled herself in one of the visitor's chairs. "How are you feeling today?"

The two had come to know each other fairly well over the course of Saguru's hospitalization through Masumi's insistent daily visitations. During that time, they had transitioned from the more formal address of surnames to informal given names. Sometimes when Masumi visited, there would be a two of Saguru's other friends, whom he had introduced as Kuroba Kaito and Nakamori Aoko. She encountered them rather infrequently, as they lived in Ekoda and the blond was hospitalized at Beika General—a good distance away even with a fairly direct train route.

"Better," he replied. "Antsy. I cannot wait to get out of here now." The nurses had taken Saguru off oxygen yesterday, and now all he needed was a clean bill of health from the doctor in order to leave. Masumi could tell that Saguru was more than ready to leave the confines of his hospital room, where he had stayed in for a total of eighteen days.

Masumi chuckled. "I don't blame you. I would have already hightailed it out of here if I were you."

Saguru laughed with her, his lips curved into a rueful smile. "Unfortunately, I can't just up and disappear from a hospital. Chances are if that happened, my father would send half the police force out looking for me."

"I bet he would, too," she agreed. Having met the superintendent general several times during her visits, Masumi saw that despite the fact that the head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police almost never saw his son due to his duties, it was abundantly clear to her that Saguru's father cared deeply for his son. The sight had made her smile wistfully in longing for her own father, who was still working in America.

Saguru had also been introduced to Suzuki Sonoko and Mouri Ran, as well as being reintroduced to Kudou Shinichi. The Suzuki heiress had been incessant in her demands to meet him once she learned that Masumi had taken to visiting him every day, and had dragged along Ran with her, who in turn had coerced Shinichi into coming with them. The two males had bonded over cases, up until the point Sonoko decreed that there would be no more talk of police work in her presence. He had not seen to much of those three since then, as the blonde would likely berate him, Masumi, and Shinichi for their inadvertent tendency to discuss past cases.

"I've got to go," Masumi said regretfully after a long and welcomed chat. "Sonoko-chan's hosting a study session tonight, and I've told her that I'll be there to help tutor physics when we get to that."

Saguru nodded. "I understand. Have a pleasant evening, Masumi-kun."

Masumi grinned, and her heart fluttered at the sight of his smiling face. "You too, Saguru-kun."

* * *

The first weekend after Saguru's release from the hospital, Masumi had insisted they celebrate by going out to Tropical Land, her treat. Saguru had vehemently protested, insisting that as the lady it should be the other way around with the gentleman picking up the incurred expenses. But the brunette had insisted, claiming that as he had been hospitalized on her behalf, it was only fair that she paid _some_ sort of recompense. The logic, while sound, sat ill with Saguru and he said as much. Masumi had merely laughed it off and pulled him through the gates after purchasing their tickets.

There were crowds of people in the amusement park, all out and about to enjoy the warm weather and entertainment to be had. Saguru had spent most of the morning being dragged around by Masumi from ride to ride. Being the adrenaline junky that she was, she had taken him on every roller coaster Tropical Land had to offer. They had stopped for a lunch break, and after much insisting that had turned into near-begging on Saguru's part, Masumi had relented and allowed him to buy them lunch.

The two friends sat outside underneath an umbrella-shaded table enjoying a meal of hamburgers and fries. Masumi was grateful for the shade, as the temperature had steadily risen with the sun. They finished their lunch with a handful of fries each, and Saguru collected their waste and disposed of it. They continued their tour of Tropical Land, and Masumi paused as they passed a dessert stand.

"Ooh, snow cones!" she squealed in delight. "I haven't had one of those in _ages_!"

"Would you like one?" the blond asked cordially, already making a beeline for the window.

Masumi yanked him back. "You're not paying for this too, are you?" she asked suspiciously.

Saguru grinned at her, this one containing a hint of crafty mischief. "Of course I am. We just haven't completely finished eating lunch yet."

Her jaw dropped in surprise at his ability to find loopholes. "But—" she sputtered, chasing him as he stopped at the window.

"What flavor would you like?" he asked, wallet already out and waiting for the cashier to give them the total amount due.

"Cherry," she replied faintly, and she watched as Saguru handed over the requisite bills in order to pay for two cherry snow cones.

"Here," Saguru said, handing her one paper cone of red shaved ice. "A cherry snow cone for the lady."

Masumi scowled at him and shoved him with her shoulder. "Oh, shut up, you," she grumbled, ducking her head to hide her blush as she spooned the flavored ice into her mouth. "Mm…" she hummed as the sweet flavor of the small red fruits exploded on her tongue. She scooped several more spoonfuls into her mouth as Saguru led her to a bench so that they could sit while enjoying the dessert. The frosty treat was exactly what she wanted—the perfect way to counterbalance the warmth of the early afternoon.

"Masumi-kun?"

The brunette glanced at her friend inquisitively. "What?"

Saguru stared at her, appearing as though he were mentally bolstering himself for something. "You've—a bit of cherry…" he mumbled, and without warning he leaned forwards to delicately clean the spot of red color off the corner of her lips with his own.

The contact was there and gone, and Masumi sat, frozen, as she stared at the blond. Her heart thundered in her ears and her stomach was doing flips crazier than anything induced by a roller coaster, and yet all she could do was gaze dumbly back as heat flooded her cheeks. The noise of the crowds, the warmth and brightness of the sun, all faded away until the only thing that she could see, the only thing that she could sense or perceive, was the blond detective before her. Saguru himself had retreated only slightly, his face centimeters from her own. His eyes locked with hers, full of warmth and something else that was inexplicable and made her want to both hide and grin like an idiot. Every now and then his gaze would flicker down to glance at her lips. The brunette herself noticed that his were stained red from the food coloring, and assumed hers were as well.

"Masumi…" he whispered, and she distantly noted the lack of honorific attached to her name.

"Yes?" she breathed, afraid to break this strange trance that they had both fallen into.

"May I…" he began softly, hesitantly. "May I kiss you?"

She quirked a brow sardonically. "Didn't you just now?"

Saguru smirked at the gentle rebuke. "I meant a _proper_ kiss."

Masumi consented with the faintest of nods, and seeing her hesitance, Saguru approached slowly, allowing her the time to back away if she so chose. His free hand rose to gently cup her jaw, fingers threading through her short hair, and Masumi's eyes closed of their own accord. His lips finally met hers in a warm, soft press, and he held them together for a breath before breaking apart. Her eyes fluttered open as a goofy grin curved her mouth, and Saguru pressed their foreheads together as they savored the afterglow.

Her heart still pounded in her chest and the butterflies were still there, but that unease that had always been present before whenever she thought about the blond detective was no longer there. So perhaps… perhaps she had liked Saguru for a while and just never wanted to admit it.

"Masumi," Saguru whispered once more, and Masumi's heart soared at the sound of his voice rolling the syllables of her name off his tongue. "Masumi, Masumi…"

"Saguru," she murmured in reply, testing out his name sans honorific.

"May I court you?" he asked, and Masumi giggled.

She drew back, though not far or fast enough to dislodge his hand. "Aren't we now a couple since we've kissed?"

Saguru smiled affectionately. "Well, I never asked properly—" he began, but the brunette cut him off.

"Hakuba Saguru, would you like to go out with me as my boyfriend?" she asked, and then proceeded to answer in his stead, "Wait, that's not proper, because a lady isn't supposed to ask the man out!" She continued the single-person conversation by saying, "Well, I never considered myself a lady."

The blond cut in to answer as himself by saying, "But I always did," and Masumi positively melted as she reached up and pulled him in for another kiss.

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Author's Note: And _that_ was definitely a trial of my writing abilities, since I'm _so_ not a romance writer! It's not a mushy-gushy fic, so my apologies if that was what was expected. I haven't ever written Masumi before, so this was, in a way, a character study for me as well. I'm also not entirely happy with my portrayal of Sonoko, as I felt I very much made her a clichéd, ditzy blonde, but I hope I was able to keep her in character. And wasn't Saguru sneaky in the end? Keishi-soukan is how the superintendent general is addressed. To whoever it was I wrote this for, I hope you enjoyed it.

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Completed: 17.07.2016


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